Sept. 2013. Vol. 3, No.

ISSN 2307-227X

International Journal of Research In Social Sciences

2013 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

CUSTOMERS EXPECTATIONS AND PERCEPTIONS OF SERVICE

QUALITY: THE CASE OF PICK N PAY SUPERMARKET STORES IN
PIETERMARITZBURG AREA, SOUTH AFRICA
Dr. Maxwell Agabu Phiri & Thobeleni Mcwabe
School of Management, University of KwaZulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg
Email: thobe_mncwabe@yahoo.com, phirim@ukzn.ac.za

ABSTRACT
Purpose- The study seeks to measure the customers expectation levels of service quality in the food retail sector
against their perceptions levels of the service quality at Pick n Pay and to determine the gap between customers
expectations and their perceptions of the service quality.
Design/Methodology/Approach- Using a SERVQUAL survey instrument a study was conducted with customers
from Pick n Pay supermarket stores in Pietermaritzburg, one at Hayfields shopping Centre and the other one at
Capital Centre. A sample of 130 participants was selected from the store locations.
Findings- Key findings include confirmation that customers have higher expectations for service quality in food
retail supermarkets than is anticipated. Gap 5, which is a gap between customers Expected Service and
customers Perceived Service, was identified.
Research Limitations- Pick n Pays management were very sceptical about conducting a survey to their
customer and this had a negative impact on data collection. Research was conducted in winter and the cold
weather had a negative impact on the response rate.
Originality/ Value- This is one of the few studies which attempted to investigate customers expectations of
service quality in food retail supermarkets.
Keywords- Service Quality, Customers Expectations, SERVQUAL, Service Quality Model.
1.0 Introduction
Service Quality is crucial in any business as it helps
create the bond between the business and its clients
(Blem, 1995:6). In todays competitive business
environment, service quality is very important to
attract and retain customers. This is due to the fact
that customers derive their perceptions of service
quality on the levels of satisfaction they experience
with a particular business. Businesses need to be
able to satisfy customers and meet their
expectations of service quality in order to gain
competitive advantage (Gagliano &Hathcote,
1994:60). Thus marketers need to continually
assess customers expectations of service quality in
order to avoid customer dissatisfaction (Zeithaml,
Bitner, 1996:56).

this usually involves some form of direct contact

between the retailer and the final consumer, which
is a very important feature of retail (Sullivan and
Adcock, 2002:6). However, the self-service
approach adopted years ago in the food retail sector
has resulted in the retail sector providing very
limited service to customers. For example the selfservice approach shifted the responsibility of
selecting and collecting goods from retail
employees to customers (Sullivan and Adcock,
2002:6).
The research problem presented in this article is
that customers expectation of service quality is
generally anticipated to be in line with the
acceptable levels of service quality in the food
retail supermarket. Using the SERVQUAL model
the authors evaluate customers expectations
against their perceptions of the service quality at
Pick n Pay stores in Pietermaritzburg area, South
Africa. The objectives of this article are, to measure
the customers expectation levels of service quality
in the food retail supermarket and their perceptions

A service can be offered by any business, whose

main aim is to meet or satisfy customer needs. All
retailers provide a service to their customers
(Sullivan and Adcock, 2002:6). Retailing is
described as the bringing together of customers
with final product distributor in the supply chain,
96

Sept. 2013. Vol. 3, No.1

ISSN 2307-227X

International Journal of Research In Social Sciences

2013 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

customers expectations and therefore be at a risk

of losing business (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003:60).

of the service quality, to determine the gap between

customers expectations and their perceptions of
the service quality at Pick n Pay and the factors that
contributed to the gap. The authors aim to provide
information that could assist in improving the
service quality in food retail supermarkets. The
authors first provide literature on service quality.
Research methods used to collect data are
discussed; this discussion includes the description
of the survey instrument used for data collection,
the sample size obtained and the reliability of the
findings. Research results and discussions are
presented,
followed
by
recommendations,
conclusion and the limitations of the study

2.3 Levels of Expectations

Customers hold different types of expectations
about service, the highest type of these are desired
service and adequate service (Zeithaml, Bitner and
Gremler, 2009:77) Desired service is the level of
service the customer hopes to receive (Zeithaml,
Bitner and Gremler, 2009:77). It is a combination
of what customers believe can be and should
be (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2009:77).The
expectations signal the level of customer hopes and
wishes and belief that they may be fulfilled, thus
failure to meet these expectations may result to
customers cutting down on purchase (Zeithaml,
Bitner and Gremler, 2009:77).Customers generally
accept that the service would not always be
performed according to their expectations and this
is formerly known as adequate service (Zeithaml,
Bitner and Gremler, 2009:77). Adequate service is
the level of service that customers will accept
(Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2009:77). Though
customers hopes and wishes may still be high,
they however have a certain level of understanding
in cases where receiving desired service does not
seem possible at all (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler,
2009:77). For example customers are used to the
self-service approach used in supermarket and
therefore have certain levels of understanding or
tolerance towards food retailers service delivery.

2.0 Related Literature

2.1 Service Quality
Service quality is a measure of how well the
service level delivered matches customer
expectations (Weitz and Wessley, 2002:340).
Weitz and Wessley (2002:340) argued that service
quality results from customers expectations of
what should the service provider offer, how the
provider actually performs to meet those
expectations (Weitz and Wessley, 2002:340). Thus
delivering quality service means ensuring
consistency in service delivery performances on
daily basis (Weitz and Wessley, 2002:340).
According to Kotler (2007: 68) service quality is
very important to attract and retain customers. This
is due to the fact that customers derive the
perceptions of service quality on the levels of
satisfaction they experience with the particular
business (Gagliano and Hathcote, 1994:60).

2.4 The Zone of Tolerance

The zone of tolerance is defined as the degree to
which customers recognize and are willing to
accept service performance varies (Zeithaml, Bitner
and Gremler, 2009:80). Customers assess service
performance on the basis of two boundaries: what
they desire and what they consider acceptable
(Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2009:77).
If
service drops below adequate service level,
customers get frustrated and this may cause
dissatisfaction with the service provided by the
company (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2009:80).
If service is above the zone of tolerance, where
service performed by the business exceeds the
desired level, customers will have favourable
responses to the business (Zeithaml, Bitner and
Gremler, 2009:80).This becomes a problem when
service performance falls below what customers are
willing to accept. The service gets customers
attention in either positive or negative way
(Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2009:80). However,
the zone of tolerance for supermarket may be
justified by the argument presented by Elvy that
supermarket use the self-service approach on their

2.2 Customers Expectations of Service

Customer expectations are beliefs about service
delivery that function as standards or reference
poinst against which performance is judged
(Zeithaml, and Bitner, 1996: 76). These authors
develop an argument which is that customers hold
different types of expectations for service
performance (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003:60). For
example as a result the self-service approach used
in food retail sector, supermarket customers may
hold different expectations of service performance
compared to those they would have when visiting a
bank. Customers compare their perceptions of
service delivery with these reference points when
evaluating service quality and therefore knowing
what customers expects is critical in gaining
competitive advantage (Zeithaml and Bitner,
2003:60). Failure to understand the levels of
service customers expects can mean losing a
customer to competitors who are able to meet

97

Sept. 2013. Vol. 3, No.1

ISSN 2307-227X

International Journal of Research In Social Sciences

2013 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

customers, which result to them being more

tolerable towards service quality that is below what
they desire (1995:7).

of overall service quality results from a comparison

between expectations and perceptions of the
different components of service (1993:8).

In addition different customers have different levels

of service tolerance (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler,
2009:80). Some customers have narrow zones of
tolerance and expect a narrow range of service
from providers; whereas on the other hand some
customers have higher levels of service
expectations that if not met cause dissatisfaction
(Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2009: 80).
Customers zone of tolerance increases or
decreases with the influence of a number of factors
including price (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler,
2009:81). For example when prices are high
customer expect quality service and therefore are
less tolerant of poor or unreliable service
(Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2009:81).

Thus the overall quality is presented by Gap 5,

which is determined by subtracting expectations
from perceptions (Bouding, Kalra, Staelin and
Zeithaml 1993:8). The Gap model emphasizes the
importance of closing the gap between expectations
and perceptions by first understanding what
customers expect. Thus this will lead to
identification of other gaps that the business will
have to close in order to deliver high quality
service that will satisfy customers.
3.0 SERVQUAL
Assessing customers expectations and perceptions
of service quality requires an understanding of
customers relationship with the service provider
(Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2009:151). Thus
according to Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler
(2009:107), a sound measure of service quality is
necessary for identifying the aspects of service
needing performance improvement, assessing how
much improvement is needed on each aspect, and
evaluating the impact of improvement efforts Due
to the intangible nature of a service SERVQUAL
model was developed to measure customers
evaluations of service quality (Zeithaml, Bitner and
Gremler, 2009:151).

Customers service tolerance also varies for

different service features or dimensions (Zeithaml,
Bitner and Gremler, 2009:81). The more important
the service factor the less tolerant customers
become towards bad or unreliable service
(Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2009:81). Thus this
concludes the point that the higher the expectations
of customers, the higher adequate service levels
are, therefore the broader the zone of tolerance is
likely to be (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler,
2009:81).
2.5 Perceptions of service Quality

The SERVQUAL scale is designed in a form of a

survey containing 22 service attributes, grouped
into the five service quality dimensions (Zeithaml,
Bitner and Gremler, 2009:151). The service quality
dimensions used in the SERVQUAL model are;
tangibles, which refers to appearance of physical
facilities, equipment, personnel and written
materials; reliability, which is ability to perform the
promised service dependably and accurately;
responsiveness, which is the willingness to help
customers and provide prompt service; assurance,
which refers to employees knowledge and
courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire
trust and confidence and empathy, which refers to
caring, individualized attention given to customers
by the company (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003:93).
Customers rate statements on service attribute in
terms of their expectations and the perceptions
(Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2009:151). The
level of service quality is determined by subtracting
the average score obtained from the expectations
section to that obtained from the perceptions
section (Weitz and Wessley, 2002:350). The
calculated difference between the expectations and
perception ratings constitutes a quantified measure

Perceptions are always considered in relation to

expectations (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler,
2009:87). Perceptions are formed through
customers assessment of the quality of service
provided by a company and whether they are
satisfied with the overall service (Zeithaml and
Bitner, 2003, p.84). (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler,
2009:102) Zeithaml and Bitner (2003) argue that
because perceptions may shift over time and
therefore it is necessary for companies to continually
assess customer perceptions (Zeithaml and Bitner,
2003:85).
2.6 Service Quality Model
The gap model is a very useful measure for
evaluating customers expectations and perceptions
of whether a particular company delivers excellent
service. This model identifies contributing factors
to the customer and provider gap and recommends
strategies a company may use to maintain a focus
on customers (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003:27).
According to Bouding, Kalra, Staelin and Zeithaml
(1993:8), in the model, the consumer's perception
98

Sept. 2013. Vol. 3, No.1

ISSN 2307-227X

International Journal of Research In Social Sciences

2013 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

of service quality (Weitz and Wessley, 2002:350).

The SERVQUAL Scale has been used by many
organisations, with of course adaptations to suit the
research context.

Pick n Pay Supermarket stores in Pietermaritzburg

area. The levels of service quality expectations and
perceptions were quantified by calculating the
average scores on each statement. Scores obtained
from calculating the averages for expectations were
subtracted from the scores obtained from
customers perceptions on each statement.

4.0 Methodology
4.1 Sample Design
A sample of 130 customers was selected from two
Pick n Pay supermarket stores in Pietermaritzburg
area for the study. The research used NonProbability sampling in selecting the research
participants. Using the Non-Probability, also
referred to as convenient sampling, enabled the
researcher to locate and distribute questionnaires to
people who have had a service encounter with the
Pick n Pay stores that the study focused on. NonProbability sampling provided the researcher
convenience and assisted in avoiding high research
costs in that each element of the population did not
have a known, nonzero chance of being included in
the research (Welman et al, 2007:23). However,
only those customers that had just experienced the
service with the two Pick n Pay Supermarket stores
and who were willing to participate in the research
formed the research sample.

The findings of the study present very important

insights in relation to the papers problem
statement that customers expectation is generally
anticipated to be in line with the acceptable levels
of service quality in the food retail supermarket.
The results revealed that customers had higher
expectation levels compared to their perceptions of
the service quality at Pick n Pay on all the service
attribute that were used to evaluate the expectations
of service quality. Thus the gap identified was Gap
5: Expected Service-Perceived Service Gap. Gap
5 presents a challenge for marketers, which is
ensuring that good quality provided meets or
exceeds customers expectations (Cottam and
Mudie, 1999:86).
The average expectations scores were consistently
around 1, where 1 on the five point scale used in
the questionnaire indicated a strongly agree
response. According to Cook (2002:3), consumers
have become sophisticated, educated, confident and
informed; as a result they have high expectations of
service they want to receive. As customer become
more aware of better service their expectations rise
(Cook, 2002: 6). The perceptions of the service
received by customers are highly dependent on the
kinds of expectations they have (Cook, 2002:14).
Perceptions average scores seemed to be closer to
2, where 2 indicated moderate agree responses,
thus resulting to negative gaps in all the statements.

4.2 Survey Instrument Design

The survey instrument that was used to collect
primary data was the SERVQUAL questionnaire.
The questionnaire consisted of 22 statements of
service attributes grouped into five service quality
dimensions that were highlighted in the previous
section of conceptual framework. Participants were
asked provide the ratings of both expectations and
perceptions on the provided statements related to
service quality. The service quality statements used
in the survey were rated using a five- point Likert
scale, with 1 indicating STRONGLY AGREE, 2
AGREE, 3 NEUTRAL, 4 DISAGREE, and 5
STRONGLY DISAGREE. Thus the difference
obtained from subtracting the expectation scores
from the perception scores revealed the gap
between customers expectations and their
perception of the service quality at Pick n Pay
stores. The total reliability obtained on the
standardized items using the Cronbachs Alpha was
.959 which means that consistency was achieved in
all the items used in the survey.

5.1 Tangibles
The dimension with the highest expectations level
but lowest gap between expectations and
perceptions was found to be the tangible
dimension. Tangibles consist of those things that a
customer can see or touch (Kurtz and Clow,
1998:78). The tangibles includes the appearance of
physical facilities, the furniture, the equipment uses
to perform services, cleanliness, point of purchase
display as well as the appearance of employees
(Kurt and Clow,1998:78). The results in this
dimension showed that customers had high
expectations for an excellent supermarket to have
modern looking equipment. However, when their
perceptions of Pick n Pays equipment were
compared to their expectation levels a gap of -0.23
was found. This means that customers perceptions

5.0 Results and Discussions

Data was analysed by quantifying respondents
responses of their levels of agreement with the
statements that were used to evaluate customers
expectations of service quality at an excellent
supermarket and perceptions of service quality at
99

Sept. 2013. Vol. 3, No.1

ISSN 2307-227X

International Journal of Research In Social Sciences

2013 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

of Pick n Pay as actually having modern looking

equipment were lower than what they expected.
Though customers expectations for modern
looking equipment exceeded their perceptions of
Pick n Pay stores as actually having modern
looking equipment, they were somehow fairly
satisfied with the equipment at the Pick n Pay
stores. Thus this confirms the argument that the
higher the expectations of customers and the higher
the adequate service levels are, the broader the zone
of tolerance is likely to be (Zeithaml, Bitner and
Gremler, 2009:81).

especially the neatness of employees, in order

improve customers perceptions of their physical
environment.
5.2 Reliability
Reliability is the consistency of performance and
the dependability of an organisations performance
(Klefsjo and Bergman, 1997:267). The reliability
dimension had the highest gaps score. Customers
expectation levels vary in this dimension according
to which service attribute was being evaluated.
However, on all the statements in this dimension
customers expectations exceeded their perceptions
of the service quality at the Pick n Pay stores.
Expectations for having an excellent supermarket
that performs the service at the time they promise
to do so, which was asked on statement 5 and 8,
exceeded customers perceptions of Pick n Pay
actually performing the service at the time
promised. These two statements got almost similar
result with statement 5 having a gap score of -0.51
and statement 8 having a gap score of -0.52. These
two statements however, received a lot of neutral
responses on customers perceptions of the Pick n
Pay stores as actually performing their services at
the time promised.

The expectations of visually appealing physical

facilities also exceeded customers perceptions of
Pick n Pays facilities, resulting to a gap of -0.3.
This gap was not big, suggesting that customers
were fairly satisfied with Pick n Pays physical
facilities appeal. However, Pick n Pays physical
facilities appearances are not on the levels that
customers would expect from an excellent
supermarket. Thus Pick n Pay stores need to
improve their physical facilities visual appeal, in
order to change the negative perceptions of
customers.
Customers expectations of neat appearing
employees were also higher than their perceptions
resulting to a gap of -0.5. Personnel appearance is
one of the tangible cues by which customers judge
the service quality of an organisation and since a
service and a service provider cannot be separated,
it is therefore crucial that there is a balance between
the service and the person who is providing it in
order to deliver quality service (Cook, 2000:12).

The reason why they may have been a high neutral

response to this statement may because of what
Cook (2000: 12) refers to as under promise, over
deliver. The self-service approached used in
supermarkets has resulted in supermarket not
making any service related promises. Thus this
service attribute was not considered by many as
relevant to the supermarket context. Nevertheless,
the gap score obtained from this statement reveals
that there were customers who highly expected to
be informed when the services will be performed.
The two Pick n Pay stores need to put more effort
to their service delivery and improve in order
satisfy their customers.

Customers also had higher expectations for

materials associated with services to be visually
appealing compared to their perceptions of the
material at Pick n Pay stores. This resulted to a gap
score of -0.36 between customers expectations and
their perceptions of Pick n Pays materials
associated with services as being visually
appealing. This suggests that customers are not
satisfied with the visual appeal of materials
associated with services at Pick n Pay.

Another statement in this dimension asked

participants if an excellent supermarket will show
sincere interest in solving customers problems.
The levels of expected service exceeded customers
perceptions of Pick n Pay as actually performing
excellent in this service attribute. A gap of -0.61
was found between customers expectations and
their perceptions.The gap implies that customers
had higher expectations for an excellent
supermarket to show sincere interest in solving
their problems, however they felt that the Pick n
Pay stores were not performing to their desired
levels in this service attribute. This statement was
also found to be one of the highest contributors to
the gap. According to Jobber (1995: 672 ),

The findings obtained in this dimension of

tangibles implies that Pick n Pays physical
environment appeal was found to be below the
desired state that customers expected, however
customers were fairly satisfied with some of the
service attribute in this dimension except for the
service attribute regarding the neatness of
employees, which presented a big gap between
customers expectations and their perceptions of
the employees at Pick n Pay. Pick n Pay stores thus
need to improve in their tangible dimension,
100

Sept. 2013. Vol. 3, No.1

ISSN 2307-227X

International Journal of Research In Social Sciences

2013 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

research on consumer loyalty in the service

industry showed that only 14 percent of customers
who stopped patronizing services business did so
because they were dissatisfied with the quality of
what they did. More than two-thirds stopped
buying because they found staff indifferent or
unhelpful .

Pick n Pay stores. Thus Pick n Pay employees

should be able to tell customers exactly when
services will be performed, in order to improve
customers perceptions of their responsiveness.
Responsiveness
also
reflects
employee
preparedness to provide the service to customers
(Hoffman and Bateson, 2001:336). Customers
were found to have high expectation levels for the
employees of an excellent supermarket to provide
prompt service. The expectations had an average
score of 1.67 compared to the perceptions which
had an average score of 2.22. A gap of -0.55 was
identified between customers expectations and
their perceptions. This gap shows that customers
had higher expectation for an excellent supermarket
to give prompt service to customers than they
actually perceived of the Pick n Pay stores as
actually giving prompt service to customers.

Customers
expectations
for
the
service
performance to be right the first time also exceeded
their perceptions of Pick n Pay stores as performing
the service right the first time. A gap of -0.38 was
identified that will need to be closed in order for
Pick n Pays customers to be satisfied with stores
service delivery.
The levels of customers expectations on the
statement regarding a supermarket insisting on
error-free records were moderately high. Customers
had moderately high expectations to this statement
with the average score of 2.02. However, their
expectations, though moderate, still exceeded their
perception of the service quality at Pick n Pay. The
perceptions average score of 2.47 was obtained
from this statement resulting to a gap of -0.45. This
suggests that customers perceived the Pick n Pay
store as not meeting their expectations in insisting
on error-free records and therefore the Pick n Pay
stores need to improve in providing error-free
records to their customers in order to close this gap.

The expectation levels of service quality on the

statement regarding employees willingness to help
customers were also higher than what customers
actually perceive of the Pick n Pays employees.
This resulted to a gap score of -0.65. According
Hoffman and Bateson (2001:331), employees
willingness to help customers may be affected by a
number of factors and may vary greatly from one
employee to the next. The unwillingness to perform
may be as a result of employee frustration and
dissatisfaction with the job (Hoffman and Bateson,
2001:331).

5.3. Responsiveness
Differences in the shopping experience between
retail outlets (e.g. store ambience, disposition of
associates, store service) are often as important to
customers as the differences in physical
characteristics of the goods offered (Wittink,
McLaugh and Gomez, 2004:265). Customers
expectations exceeded their perceptions in all the
service statements under the responsiveness
dimension. The reason why employees
responsiveness
usually
lacks
is
because
organizations often focus on hard skills training.
This includes training in the areas of product
knowledge, technical skills and administrations,
while deemphasizing the importance of positive
attitude in the way employees deal with customers
(Cook, 2002:12). Customers expectations for
employees to tell them exactly when services will
be performed exceeded their perceptions of Pick n
Pay as actually performing this service attribute
according to their expectations. This resulted to a
gap of -0.59 that was obtained after subtracting the
expectations from perceptions. This gap was
negative, implying that Pick n Pays service quality
was less than what customers expected. Customers
were not satisfied with this service attribute at the

Customers expectations to the statement that

employees should never be too busy to respond to
customers request were also high. Customers
expectations exceeded their perceptions in this
service attribute, resulting to a gap of -0.65. This
service attribute was found as one of the highest
contributors to the gap. Literature reveals that
sometimes the service provider may be expected to
do too much work and therefore get frustrated and
end up loosing commitment to provide the best
service. This can affect negatively the service
delivery and the satisfaction of customers as it all
depends on the actions of employees (Zeithaml and
Bitner 2003:22). Pick n Pay stores need to improve
their internal relations management in order to
motivate their employees to perform excellent and
meet customers expectations.
5.4 Assurance
Assurance is one of the most important factors of
service quality. This is due to the fact that
customers want to deal with people they can trust
(Cook, 2000:12). Customers highly expected the
101

Sept. 2013. Vol. 3, No.1

ISSN 2307-227X

International Journal of Research In Social Sciences

2013 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

behaviour of employees of an excellent

supermarket to instil confidence. However, their
perceptions of the behaviour of Pick n Pays
employees as instilling confidence were below
their desired service levels. Customers responses
reflected lower service quality perceptions about
the behaviour Pick n Pays employees as instilling
confidence. A gap of -0.42 was found from this
statement after subtracting the expectations average
score of 1.85 from the perceptions average score of
2.27.

5.5 Empathy
Service encounter is the point at which the
customer experiences the service. Service
encounters are very important as they affect a
customers experience, thus having a negative
experience may result to customers having negative
perceptions about the service quality offered by a
business (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003:101).
The difference between the expectations and
perceptions scores to the statement regarding
giving the customers individual attention revealed a
gap of -0.36. Employees need to perform their roles
according to the expectations of the customers
(Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2009:.62). Failure
to perform the service according to customers
expectations can result to customer dissatisfaction
(Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2009:.62). Though
customers expectations of service quality were not
too intense in this service attribute, Pick n Pay
stores were still perceived by customers as not
matching their desired service levels.

The levels of customers expectations to the

statement that customers should feel safe in their
transactions with an excellent supermarket were
also found to be high. However, their perceptions
of feeling safe in their transactions with Pick n Pay
were lower than their expectations, resulting to a
gap of -0.38. This suggests that customers are not
completely comfortable in their transactions with
Pick n Pay, which means Pick n Pay stores need to
find ways to earn customers trust.
Expectations for employees who are consistently
courteous with customers were also high.
Customers expectations exceeded their perceptions
in this service attribute, leaving a gap of -0.58. The
behaviour of employees, their attitudes and
emotions are visible to customers and affect the
service experience either positively or negatively
(Hoffman and Bateson, 2001:36). Pick n Pays
employees have to improve in being courteous with
customers in order to improve customers
perceptions of the service quality and close the
existing gap. As it has been argued that if a service
provider is irritable, seems to be frustrated, whether
from personal problems or from interactions with
customers the mood affects the quality of the
service delivered (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler,
2009:62.

Customers expectations for an excellent

supermarket to have operating hours convenient to
customer were also higher than their perceptions of
the Pick n Pay stores as actually having operating
hours convenient to all their customers. A gap of 0.23 was found between customers expectations
and their perceptions of the service quality at the
Pick n Pay stores. However this gap was small,
suggesting that customers were fairly satisfied with
Pick n Pays operating hours.
Customers expectations to the statement that an
excellent supermarket will give customers personal
attention exceeded their perceptions of the Pick n
Pay stores as giving them personal attention. The
expectations had an average score of 2.05
compared to the perceptions score of 2.51. This
resulted to a gap of -0.46. This gap shows that the
Pick n Pay stores need improve in this service
attribute. Customers want be treated as individuals,
to be valued and to feel that their custom is
important (Cook, 2000:13).

Employees need to be trained about the details of

what products can and cannot do (Hoffman and
Bateson, 2001:126). Customers expectations for
employees to have knowledge to answer to their
questions were also higher than their perceptions of
Pick n Pays employees as having knowledge to
answer to customers questions. A gap of -0.44 was
found suggesting that the quality of the service
represented by this statement was not as excellent
at Pick n Pay stores as customers would have like it
to be. It is crucial that employees are
knowledgeable, technically able and consistently
courteous with customers in order to keep them
satisfied (Cook, 2000:12).

Customers expectation levels were also high on

the service excellence statement about an excellent
supermarket having customers best interest at
heart. Expectations exceeded perceptions resulting
to a gap of -0.38. This gap implies that though
customers expectations were not too intense in this
service attribute, the Pick n Pay stores still need to
improve, in order to match customers
expectations.

102

Sept. 2013. Vol. 3, No.1

ISSN 2307-227X

International Journal of Research In Social Sciences

2013 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

Results revealed that customers expectations for

an excellent supermarket to understand their
specific needs were high. This statement was one
of the highest contributors to the gap. The average
score obtained in this statement suggests that
customers highly expect an excellent supermarket
to understand their specific needs. The gap score
obtained in this statement was -0.55. This gap
implies that Pick n Pay stores needs to improve in
this service attribute in order to improve customer
satisfaction.

on all the factors discussed in this research paper as

contributing the most to the Customer Perceived
Service and Expected Service gap in order to match
customers expectations.
References

6.0 Recommendations
Retailers, including Pick n Pay in South Africa,
should manage customer expectations (Mudie and
Cottam, 1999:90. The results of the study have
revealed that customers have high expectations of
service quality in supermarkets. Thus Pick n Pay
and other food retailers need to improve in their
service attributes that reflected big gaps between
customer expectations and their perception. They
should design service standards that promote
reliability to customers, consistency in service
delivery and not promising more than they can be
able to deliver. Consumers had very high
expectation on the responsiveness dimension, thus
this provided an understanding that retailers should
teach their personnel to be responsive to customers.
Employees should always be prepared and willing
to assist customers and stay polite in all their
service performances (Hoffman and Bateson,
2001:336). Identifying factors that contribute to
the gap would help retailers match customers
expectations in their service delivery.
7.0 Conclusion
From the research results, this article can conclude
that customers expectations of service quality in
supermarkets are higher than their perceptions of
service quality at Pick n Pay, therefore this proves
that the customer expectation of service quality is
not in line with the acceptable levels of service
quality in the food retail sector. Customers have
higher service quality expectations that if not met
by Pick n Pay can result to customer dissatisfaction
and losing customers to competitors. The service
provided by Pick n Pay may however, be perceived
as at the adequate level, which is the minimum
level of service the consumers will tolerate without
being dissatisfied, however the customer
expectation is still beyond the levels of service
quality in the food retail supermarket. It can also be
concluded that the customer expectation of service
quality in the food retail sector is not in line with
the acceptable levels of service quality in this
sector as anticipated. Pick n Pay and other food
retail sectors should improve their service quality

1.

Asubonteng, P., McCleary, K,J. &Swan, J.E.

(1996) SERVQUAL Revisited: A Critical
Review of Service Quality. The Journal of
Services Marketing. Volume, 10, Issue 6, pp6281.

2.

Bergman, B. and Klefsjo, B. (1994). Quality

from Customer Needs to Customer Satisfaction.
London: McGraw-Hill

3.

Blem, N (1995) Service Please South Africa,

South Africa: Creda Press (PTY) LTD.

4.

Bogomolova, S., Romaniuk, J. & Sharp, A.

(2009) Quantifying the extent of temporal decay
in service quality ratings. International Journal
of Market Research. Volume. 51, Issue. 1; p. 7191

5.

Cook, S. (2000). Customer Care. How to Create

an Effective Customer Focus. 3rd Edition. UK
and USA. Kogan Page Limited

6.

Cook, S. (2002). Customer Care. How to Create

and Effective Customer Focus. 4th Edition. UK
and USA. Kogan Page Limited

7.

Elvy, B.H (1995) How to Appreciate Your

Customers, London: Macmillan Business.

8.

Etzel, M.J, Walker, B, J, and Stanton, W.J.

(2001) Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill
Higher Education.

9.

Gabbot, M &Hogg, G. (1997) Contemporary

Services Marketing Management, A Reader,
London: The Dryden Press.

10. Gabbot, M &Hogg, G. (1998). Consumers and

Services. England; John Wiley & Sons LTD.
11. Gagliano, K.B. &Hathcote, J (1994) Customer
Expectations and Perceptions of Service Quality
in Retail Apparel Speciality Stores. Journal of
Services Marketing, Volume.8, Issue No 1, pp.
60-69.

12. Goldstein, S.D (2009). Improve Customer

Satisfaction Through Dedicated Service
Channels. The Journal of Applied Business and
Economics. Volume. 9, Issue. 1; p. 11 (11
pages)
13. Gomez, M,I, McLaughlin, E,W. &Wittink, D, R.
(2004) Customer Satisfaction and Retail Sales

103

Sept. 2013. Vol. 3, No.1

ISSN 2307-227X

International Journal of Research In Social Sciences

2013 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss
Performance: An Empirical Investigation.
Journal of Retailing. Volume 80, pp265-278

the Firm, New York: McGraw-Hill Higher

Education.

14. Grant, D.B& Fernie, J (2008) Research note;

Exploring out-of-stock and on-shelf availability
in
non-grocery,
high
street
retailing.
International Journal of Retail & Distribution
Management.Volume. 36, Issue. 8; p. 661.
15. Hoffman, K. D and Bateson, J. E.G. (2001).
Essentials of Services Marketing: Concepts,
Strategies, and Cases. 2nd Edition, USA: South
Western. Thomson Learning.
16. Jobber, D. (1995) Principles and Practice of
Marketing. England: McGraw-Hill Book
Company Europe.
17. Koekemoer,
L.
(2004)
Marketing
Communications. South Africa: Juta and Co.
Ltd.
18. Kotler, P. &Keller, K.L. (2006) A Framework of
Marketing Management. 3rd Edition, New
Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
19. Kurtz, D, L, and Clow, K, E (1998). Services
Marketing. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

20. Mudie, P, and Cottam, A. (1999). The

Management and Marketing of Services. 2nd
Edition, London: Butterworth-Heinemann.
21. Parasuraman, A, Zeithaml, V.A, and Berry, L.L.
(1985). A Conceptual Model of Service Quality
and Its Implications for Future Research. Journal
of Marketing. Volume 49, Issue 4. pp 41-50.
22. Sullivan, M. &Adcock, D. (2002) Retail
Marketing, Singapore: Thomson Learning
23. Teas, R, K. (1993) Performance Evaluation and
Consumers Perceptions of Quality. The Journal
of Marketing. Volume 57, Issue 4, pp 18-34.
24. Vazquez, R, Rodriguez-Del Bosque, I, A, Diaz,
A &Mand Ruiz, A, V, C. (2001) Service Quality
in Supermarket Retailing: Identifying Critical
Service Experiences. Journal of Retailing and
Consumers Services. Volume 8, pp1-14
25. Weitz, B &Wensley, R (2002). Handbook of
Marketing, London: Sage Publications
26. Zeithaml, V, A. &Bitner, M, J. (1996) Service
Marketing, US: McGraw-Hill.
27. Zeithaml, V, A. &Bitner, M, J. (2003) Service
Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across
the Firm, New York: McGraw-Hill Higher
Education.
28. Zeithaml, V, A. &Bitner, M, J. (2009) Service
Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across

104